Hi, I'm Laura Munson and I'm a writer living in Montana. I wrote an essay for the Modern Love column of the New York Times (published on August 2, 2009) called "Those Aren't Fighting Words, Dear."
The reaction stunned me. It was the number one most read article on the New York Times website for the days following the essay's publication; the top searched for two months. It crashed the New York Times website comments section, and created a firestorm all over the internet, around dining tables, at offices, and book groups across America and internationally. It was reproduced in The Week and on Oprah Online, and in many newspapers.
The essay was the short version of a memoir I wrote during a rough time in my marriage because I needed that book on my bedside table--one which would speak to me from the trenches, letting me know that I could be powerful and even happy, especially in a crisis. Mine could be a different response than what we see so often in our society. I didn't have to be reactionary. I didn't have to play victim. I didn't have to suffer. But I couldn't find a book like that--a simple story of a woman's journey that wasn't specifically spiritual or self-help, but like sitting with a gentle friend who is willing to be vulnerable and share her world so we don't have to feel so alone. I couldn't find that book, so I wrote it. That's what we writers do. We write what we know. We write for ourselves and we write to provide relief for others. We write our way through life, and in some cases, we write our way to life. That's how it happened for me during that challenging time.
My agent, Tricia Davey (Davey Literary & Media) went out with the book version that Monday morning, and after writing for twenty years, having completed fourteen novels and endured countless rejections...within forty-eight hours, I had a book deal.
The book is called "This Is Not The Story You Think It Is: A Season of Unlikely Happiness," and came out in April 2010 by Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam.
Both the essay and the book are ultimately about how to be responsible for your own well-being, especially during a crisis. Plug it into any crisis. Plug it into any and no religion. It's a powerful way to live. I'm thrilled to announce that the book landed on the New York Times bestseller list, that Book of the Month Club named it one of this year's best books, and that it is currently a bestseller in Australia. It will also be published in Germany, The Netherlands, UK, China, and Taiwan.
I look forward to sharing the rest of my story with you all!
Come say hi on my website: http://www.lauramunsonauthor.com. And sign up for my monthly HAVEN NEWSLETTER, in which I select a topic, write about it, and encourage you to join me in a live chat on my blog: http://www.lauramunson.wordpress.com.
Yrs.
Laura
